


The Final One

by Aria Serif (Mysterie)



Category: Undertale
Genre: Deltarune (theory), Genocide Route, Neutral Route, Other, Pacifist Route, Resets, The Player (theory), Timelines
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:54:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24510403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mysterie/pseuds/Aria%20Serif
Summary: He's tired of the resets ....  the killing ... getting to the surface only to wake up back in Snowdin. He's just... numb.
Relationships: Asgore Dreemurr & Toriel, Frisk & Sans (Undertale), Papyrus & Sans (Undertale), Papyrus & Undyne (Undertale), Sans & The Player, Sans & Toriel (Undertale)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	1. Chapter 1

A puff of air from the figure that stood beneath the treeline went unseen. How long had this gone on? Well, if he was honest, he wasn't really sure any more. Good, bad ... it all seemed to have lost its meaning. How many years had it been? Five years, at least he thought so; he wasn't sure anymore. So many years had passed, but nothing had changed. Well, maybe not nothing. That would be too presumptuous to say so. The same few days, over and over again. Sometimes it meant watching everyone around him disappear into piles of dust until the very end, sometimes it meant watching his friends rush down the mountain side only for within the hour for everything to go dark and he'd wake up again in his bed in Snowdin.

No one else ever noticed any of this of course. They would never remember. Good. Bad. Nothing mattered. It was getting to the point where he was starting to wonder if he was just going insane. Was he the only one living the same days over and over or was it all in his head? He didn't know anymore. So much blood... so much dust. He could scarcely remember what day it even was when he opened his sockets. Was it the day the human would come through the door? Yeah, that was it. He was back here because he was waiting for the human. Well, perhaps it was more accurate to say he was waiting for a human rather than one in specific. Oh the humans all looked the same when they came through the door, but he had begun, over time, to notice subtle differences.

Sometimes they'd smile at his jokes, other times they'd crack up like it was the funniest thing in the world... and then there were those who would just stare at him like he'd suddenly sprouted a second head or something. There was also those who just stared, like they couldn't comprehend what a joke even was. That last type was usually the same that came out with dust covering them. Those were the ones he hated, yet he knew that every time that happened there was always something different. Even if they always looked the same, he knew they weren't. He couldn't remember what reset he'd been on when he started to notice the odd differences between one pacifist human and another. Just that he'd noticed sometimes the human went down to where Gryftrot lived and would run around checking every corner like they had never been there before. Even though he'd seen them countless times and had seen them do this before. It was as if everything was brand new to them.

At first he had just chalked it up to him not remembering things, then he decided, one reset that he'd just start writing this detail down. It didn't happen just every now and then, it happened a LOT the first couple of years. It slowly then trickled down as more and more of those who played were more of those who were covered in dust than not... those who were covered in dust never did much exploring really beyond trying to fret out monsters to kill. Not all who killed, however, dusted the lady behind the door. He'd taken note that some were just accidentally killing in self-defense. That often ended in what he had dubbed a "neutral" run. Where the human didn't mean any harm really but occasionally their attempts to defend themselves meant they earned several LV on their journey across the Underground.

It wasn't just coincidence and he had realized, over several resets, that the human he saw wasn't really in control. That someone else, every single time they came through, was actually who was in control of their actions. This made sense as to why they'd run through the Underground one minute as if they knew everything but then two or three resets later would run around every single place they could get to as if they'd never been there before. Why sometimes, even some Pacifists didn't find his jokes that funny or didn't seem to be fans of his brother, but still didn't kill anyone. He shook the thoughts away, he couldn't afford to be distracted today. Today he would see what sort of human he was dealing with. Would they be friend or foe? Would the human be covered in dust or be holding a stick? He waited, standing behind the tree he usually did. It was routine by now. He'd done this so often he could do this in his sleep probably. What a joke. That's all his life had ever been since this human had entered the Underground. Just one big joke. There wasn't anything he could do to stop the constant resets and he was starting to get tired of it all. The worst part is, even if he did something drastic... it would just all reset, like he'd done nothing at all. He'd given up, long ago, on the idea of ever making it out and being able to stay there.

He vaguely remembered once reading about a place humans called purgatory. He had the idea that maybe that's what the Underground was now. A place that never really changed, that could only change with a human and then it was right back where it started again. So then... eh. It didn't matter did it? Nothing mattered anymore. He was just doing his "script" thing. He'd found out that if he deviated from what was expected of him that things could go horribly wrong. It would either result in a reset or he'd be in agony, forced to say something similar to what he was expected of by some force he couldn't even begin to understand. The only time he wasn't dictated by this "script" was before the human appeared. He was able to do or say whatever he wanted in this short amount of time. The time it took, however, varied, as he found out. Sometimes it would be a couple of days, sometimes only an hour or so. This meant he knew he had a bit of freedom but there was nothing he could really do with said freedom that would have any sort of real consequence besides possibly invoking a reset. He'd done that several times.

Whatever all this was, the only thing that was made abundantly clear to him was that he had no control, what so ever on what happened. He was just expected to play a "role" and that was it. Sometimes he was a friend, sometimes he was the hardest monster to beat in the entire Underground. It didn't matter. Those who fought him, who spent days upon days upon days learning his patterns and dying to him always eventually got the upper hand and he would fall victim to them. Their determination was far too great, their lust for power, or greed, or for a sense of accomplishment or whatever else a human could possibly use to justify ruining hundreds of lives... No matter what he did or said, they never listened. All they could understand was that they had this need to get past him, which meant they had to kill him.

He took out his phone and looked at the time, trying to shake away any thoughts of the genocide runs. Where was the human? Were they going to be one of those that took days to come out? Well, it didn't seem like they'd be out today. That was odd though, well, he'd keep tabs on this one too. As the hour grew late he eventually headed home. Tomorrow would be another day and they likely would appear then. Well, he had more free time. He took a shortcut from the forest and arrived at his house. He turned the key to his room and the door opened to the room beyond, the travel magic vanishing.


	2. Chapter 2

The snow softly crunched beneath his slippers as he walked the same path as the day before. His brother had gotten up, optimistic as always, but there seemed to be some mild disappoint in his brother's gaze... or maybe he'd just been imagining it. He knew the human should have been in Snowdin by now. Were they delaying? Well, maybe they were just running around The Ruins. They'd done this once before, where they'd taken two days to come out instead of the first. He looked at the door. It was shut tight as always. He knocked on the door.

"knock knock." No response again. Well he headed behind the tree, the lack of response meant one of two things. Either she was busy with the child or ... he didn't want to think of that reason. He waited to see if the child would emerge soon. He didn't hear any footsteps from the door as he headed for the tree. He spent the day there.... Nothing happened. Had the child even fallen? Were they free of the human? Had they really reset and then just... quit? Had they left the monsters on their own finally? Nah, that was just wishful thinking. There was no way that was going to ever happen.

After all the resets, pacifist, neutral and genocide... they had proven that they would not so easily get bored of going through the Underground and doing what they wanted. After the 100th true reset he had figured this out. He had lost count after that and had only kept count during genocide runs for a while in how many times he'd killed the human when they had killed everyone. Well, almost everyone anyway; there were always the few who had the sense to flee from their homes and go to a place where the human could not reach them. There were several such places in each area. Places where no one really visited often because they were often troublesome to get to even for monsters or were just so out of the way that it didn't make sense to go that way.

He brushed the thoughts aside. He needed to be vigilant, he couldn't miss the human if they came out. What time was it again? He looked at his phone. It was almost supper time, they really were late... where was the human? They usually didn't take this long and they always came out of the door at the same time of day... they'd never come out at a late hour. He sighed and put his phone away and headed off home again. Well, maybe they had found something entertaining in the Ruins. He doubted that, but well, since when was the human ever really predictable beyond seeing what sort of timeline it would be? Well, he would just have to see wouldn't he.

"hey bro, i'm home."

"WHERE WERE YOU BROTHER?! YOU WEREN'T AT YOUR POST TODAY! OR YESTERDAY!"

"eh, i just was doing some patrolling to see if a human would show. that's snow problem right?"

"SO YOU'VE ACTUALLY BEEN DOIN- WAIT... WAS THAT A PUN?!" Sans smiled at his brother.

"SANS! STOP GOOFING AROUND!" Well, that was new.

"come bro, that was a real rib tickler." Papyrus sighed.

"AT LEAST YOU AREN'T SLEEPING AT YOUR STATION. SANS, I DON'T UNDERSTAND SOMETHING." This was definitely off the usual script...

"what's that bro?"

"I WAS SO SURE THERE WAS GOING TO BE A HUMAN TODAY... I FELT IT IN MY BONES AND YET... NOTHING."

"yeah, that's odd, you've never been wrong before."

"OF COURSE NOT I- WAIT... WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?"

"just that usually when you say something will happen, it does."

"HMMM, THAT IS TRUE." Phew.

"anyway, i'm going to go upstairs. i'll catch ya later."

"DON'T YOU DARE FALL ASLEEP!"

"okay bro." He headed upstairs and went to his room while Papyrus headed to the kitchen to make supper. Sans went to his room. Normally he told his brother he was going to Grillby's but this time he felt that something was off and he couldn't have his brother marching over to Grillby's looking for him when he wasn't going to be there... He unlocked his door with a key, one he used often. The feel of magic of this particular key was one he had used so often that he knew its feel well as much as the other keys on his key ring. As he stepped out into the shed he moved over to the final drawer and opened it with a key. He pulled out the journal there. He expected that maybe his entry from the day before would be erased... no. It was still there. He grabbed a pen. He had taken to using short hand for days between resets so that he didn't use up the journal too much the journals that were full he kept in his phone so that they wouldn't be erased by resets. He had started a new one for this timeline.

reset 2xxxxxxxxxxxx

run 1

entry 1

\- no human

\- no change

entry 2

\- no human

\- new dialogue from bro

With a sigh he shut the journal and set it into the drawer, he wondered how long this would go on. Perhaps the human would show up tomorrow and things would progress as they always had. He dug out a bottle of ketchup and stared at the machine that was covered by a cloth, drinking the bottle. He should work on it... he should try and get it to work... except that what was the point? The human was just going to reset. Nothing he would do would matter. He'd made notes on what needed replacing and all that in one of his journals, but that had been when he had still been hopeful that the resets would stop. Early on before he had realized the weed was responsible and wasn't going to stop resetting until it grew bored. That hadn't been fun, but at least he'd then realized anything he had on him didn't change; he had learned that the hard way. He'd made the notes, a 'just in case' sort of thing that had long since proved useless. He yawned and tossed away the empty ketchup bottle. Just another day. Another reset. Another run. Just more of the same. He shortcut to his room and lay on the bed and dropped off to sleep after staring up at the ceiling above. Same as it had always been ...


	3. Chapter 3

He stood at the door, one hand against it. Silence, it had been silent for months now but he had to try... He noticed the door was still not open. He raised his hand to knock only to hear soft footsteps. He hesitated... was that... laughter? He shortcut to his spot next to the tree. He waited, was the human finally coming? He waited and finally the door slid open. He wasn't sure if he felt relieved or not when he saw the child yet, they weren't alone. Well this was new. Why was she following the child outside? Crap... he couldn't do things like usual could he? Or... did he still have to? This was almost impossible, there was no way that this should be possible but then again, the human had not appeared for months on end and the script he was used to had been shattered. His brother was starting to worry that something was wrong with him and Sans wasn't surprised that his brother thought this. After all, he'd been expecting the human for so long and then suddenly... there was... no human.

The human that walked with Toriel was clearly not a child. Well, at least not a young one anyway. It was almost impossible to tell how old they were, but from what Sans knew this was typical. Frisk was old enough that they weren't a child, but it also wasn't apparent how old they were or what gender. Sans was never one to assume such and there were monsters who didn't have genders so this wasn't so abnormal really, if Frisk was female, Sans wagered then they had not developed their adult figure yet and if Frisk was male they were too young to have grown facial hair, but regardless of which gender Frisk was, it was clear they could easily be a young teenager - at least in human culture. Monsters didn't differentiate as much as humans did, one was either a child or an adult... there was no in between and as far as Sans knew this was just mostly because of human laws.

Not that it mattered. Just because Frisk was with Toriel now it didn't mean that they were... no. He could see it clearly. They didn't have a single EXP. That wasn't particularly telling though. Sometimes Frisk had spared only the monsters in The Ruins and killed everyone else, just one of the many "endings" he had seen so many times over. He followed them down the path, they didn't know he was there just yet. He was going over what he should do and how he should greet th-

CRACK!

Well f-. He shortcut behind a tree as the two whipped around and went back to the branch. i forgot about that branch. He swore he was about to have a soul attack as he watched the queen scan the area, looking like she was ready to blast anyone who came too close. To his relief, they tugged at her sleeve, distracting her and getting her to calm down. It was then he realized that, for the very first time, he heard a quiet voice speak up. That voice belonged to Frisk.

"It's okay mom. We'll be okay, remember?" Toriel smiled a little.

"Well, of course my child. Shall we continue on?" Frisk nodded.

Frisk had NEVER spoken before. This was nuts. All the times before now, regardless of what sort of "run" it was, the human had never spoken aloud. Not to him, or his brother or anyone else. Sans had, over time, just assumed that maybe they were mute or just chose not to speak yet... here they were, talking. He narrowed his sockets in thought. He needed to talk to them. Alone. How was he going to do that though with the queen tagging along? This was going to be tough. Well... he'd just go along with this. It would all reset again anyway wouldn't it? This was just another sick game. With an inward sigh he brushed aside his thoughts and went back to following the two.

"My child, why are we stopping here? Surely the gate is not so wide that-"

Time to put on the show.

"human. don't you know how to greet a new pal?"

"That voice." Before Sans could say much more the pair had turned to greet him. Well, there was that, so he held out his hand and Frisk took it. The sound of the whoopee cushion filled the air. Sans started laughing, after all, no matter how many times he did it... it was still funny.

"Oh... oh my pfff...." The queen broke into laughter and Frisk grinned, giggling a little.

"heh, the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. it's always funny."

"He he... oh my, now then, who are you? Are you the one who made those jokes with me? Your voice sounds familiar."

"yup, the name's sans. sans the skeleton. nice to meet you."

"It is nice to meet you as well." She smiled at him.

"so, what brings you out here?" He stuck his hand back in his jacket. He wondered what the point of his promise was if she was here to protect Frisk herself.

"Oh, well Frisk insisted I meet a friend of theirs."

"yes. he should be just beyond here."

"I still do not understand how you two know each other." Frisk just smiled a little and tugged Toriel after them. Sans followed the two, his brother was going to be along at any moment. How was he going to explain-

"THERE YOU ARE BROTHER! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE ON THE LOOK OUT FOR A HUMAN! DID YOU FIND ONE?"

"i did."

"WELL THEN! GOOD!" It was similar to what Sans remembered the script was for the genocidal "run" but what else was he supposed to say?

"That's him, but he likes puzzles so we have to follow him through some puzzles before we can talk to him." Frisk told Toriel as his brother just strode away.

"Oh? Oh! That must be Papyrus."

"yup, that's my bro."

"Well, I certainly look forward to meeting him properly later."

"yeah, i'll see you two up ahead." Frisk tugged Toriel towards the next area while Sans slipped around, using a shortcut to get ahead of them to meet up with his brother at the first puzzle. Why was everything so different now? He shook away the question. That would be a question for the human once he was able to get them alone... but could he? It wasn't hard when it was just him and Frisk, but with the queen tagging along now he realized that could be a lot harder to do... and what if he lost his temper with them? There was no way the queen was likely to stand for that. He knew he'd have to watch himself. There was no way of knowing how far he could go off script now that this new event was in play... and was there even a script anymore? Maybe this was a new script? He shook away the idea. While not inconceivable it wouldn't make sense for it to take so long for a new one to appear. It should have appeared when others tried to hack the code appeared... right? That would have made more sense at any rate. Then again his life seemed to be one huge game so who was he to say what was and wasn't possible? He didn't have time for this anyway. He needed to try and follow as much of the original script as was possible just to make sure nothing bad happened. Like a reset again. At this point though, would it matter much if it did happen? At least if it did, what could he expect? Would it be right back to how things were before with the endless loops or would it be a repeat of whatever Frisk was doing this time? So many questions and almost no time to get them answered.


	4. Chapter 4

reset 2xxxxxxxxxxxx

run 1

entry 21

\- human appeared

\- brought lady out

\- no dust

That had been awkward. To say the least. Sans stuck the journal back into his phone with the pen and into his pocket. All of this was... new and now the three of them were in the kitchen while he was on his bed, trying to figure out what new game the human was playing. This just was too bizarre, he hadn't ever had so many "new" things happen in such rapid succession. How was he supposed to deal with this? This was supposed to be the time that the human was dating his brother, or exploring the town... not sitting in his kitchen cooking with his brother! He'd had to do some fast talking before the first puzzle to convince the queen that his brother was harmless... and of all things, the human had backed him up! 

He wasn't sure if this was some ploy on their part or if they were sincere and this was just... He shook away the thoughts. It didn't matter. The human was likely just trying to mix things up for once. How they managed this after all this time he did not know. _maybe their determination is much stronger than i thought.... more than was even considered if they can break the 'script' now and just do whatever they want._ Well, they would reset once they got bored of... whatever this was and things would probably go back to what they had been before. _nothing's really changed. why would they suddenly want to be friends with what they hate?_ He thought and got to his feet. He needed to get back downstairs before things became dusty... if they hadn't already. 

He landed on the couch, instead of the silence he expected he heard quiet laughter and his brother's huffing in annoyance. Seems they were alive. For now. He would keep up the act then. At least until everything dissolved. He and the queen traded puns over the meal, his brother was annoyed; like normal, but it seemed toned down than normal. Perhaps he was just humoring their guests and the human seemed amused though they didn't say much themselves during the meal. It was as the meal was coming to an end that the human spoke up.

"Sans, can I talk to you?"

"sure, what about?" He asked as he finished off his ketchup.

"Um, well it's a little personal so... can we talk in private?" 

"why so serious all of the sudden?" They didn't answer but he shrugged a little.

"okay, okay. let's go talk eh? just don't talk my non-existent ear off." He headed out of the kitchen and up the stairs to his room. He unlocked the room with his normal key and pushed the door open. Normally he only let the human here for his prank against them, but he didn't know of any place they could go talk without expending energy to talk to them outside and he knew the queen wouldn't like that much. He shut the door behind them, the human looked around curiously a moment but jumped a little when the door shut behind them.

"what's this all about?" 

"Um, what do you mean?" 

"let's face it, you've never done any of this before. what new game are you up to?" He saw them wince. For a moment they seemed quiet.

"for someone who wanted to talk you're awfully quiet."

"Sans... this isn't a game." 

"really? could a fooled me with all the resets and the stuff i repeat over and over again against my own will." His gaze bored into their eyes.

"with how i can't change anything... no matter. what. i. do. whether i see the sunlight or whether you and i stand in that hall and you're covered in dust. don't tell me that you don't remember. i know better." 

"I do... but... it's not like that. Sans, I don't understand it myself... but... I'm free." 

"from what? your 'friend' chara?"

"No. It wasn't them either. I wasn't me." Those last words struck a cord in him. He had heard those words before... where? Who had said them?

_"i'll see you around eh?"_

_"Sans."_

_"yeah?"_

_"Have you ever... had a time where you... weren't yourself?"_

_"what do you mean?"_

_"Something is wrong. I can't explain it. There's something out there, it's been controlling my actions. I wasn't me."_

He knew that voice.... a boy he had known but for some reason he couldn't recall much. Was there a connection? He felt curiosity bubble up, despite everything.

"what do you mean?" Sans found himself asking. 

"Something else has been controlling me. I don't know what, but it was never Chara. I never wanted to hurt anyone and I never wanted to reset... but no matter what I tried, it would happen. Again and again... and again. Pushing me to do things I never would. I wanted to tell you, knowing you'd probably be the only one to believe me... but I couldn't. I was forced to be mute. No matter how hard I tried to speak... I couldn't. All I could do to communicate was try and make choices. Even then I wasn't in control of what decision was made." Tears fell after a moment, not in a stream, but just one or two and he could see the weary misery in the human's eyes. They were... telling the truth.

"i believe you." 

"W... what?" 

"c'mon. there's somethin' i wanna show ya." The human nodded and followed him out of the room and downstairs.

"Oh! There you are! Are you two done talking?"

"uh, not yet. i just remembered there was something i wanted to show 'em real quick. we won't be out too late."

"Alright." He noticed his brother was no where in sight, probably in his room. Sans considered just going outside but with her here... He shrugged off his jacket and put it on the human; it was a bit big, but the grateful smile was worth it.

"we can get you your own coat tomorrow." He then headed out with them following him behind. He pulled out the key he usually kept in the drawer later on for the human to find if they bothered. He unlocked the small room behind the house and flipped on the light. He put the key away and shut the door behind them once they were inside. He went over to the first drawer and pulled out a photo. He then went to the furthest drawer and pulled out all the journals except the one that he had last used and the one that he carried.

"i know you know about the photo at least right?" The human went over to him even as they nodded.

"I don't recognize anyone in that photo... except you and all it says on the back is... don't forget." 

" they're friends, but doesn't one of them look a little familiar at least? besides me anyway." He handed over the photo, watching them stare at it.

"The human... they kinda look like Chara but... they aren't, are they?" 

"no, he isn't chara. his name is kris." 


	5. Chapter 5

"I don't understand... is there some relation to them?" 

"sort of. ever heard of the multiverse theory?" Frisk nodded.

"you see that?" Sans motioned towards the sheet in the corner of the room over a machine of some kind.

"Yeah... what about it?" 

"it's what got me here." He saw the gears in the kid's head turning as they absorbed the new information.

"So... you're not from here? Then... where ARE you from?" 

"i don't have an easy answer to that one. you've been through all the resets with me, you noticed my brother isn't exactly as naive as he pretends right?" Frisk nodded again.

"truth is... we were both scientists. assistants to a doctor gaster. sound familiar?"

"I believe so... it's one of those odd things that everyone kinda knows about but also, doesn't. So... what happened?"

"several years ago i was home... with them." He pointed them out as he spoke.

"kris, susie, noel. i was a teenager who ran a local grocery store on the surface with my younger brother until one day we were approached by doctor gaster. he lived on the edge of the town and wanted to know if we'd help him during the summer as interns. so we did. he was a very brilliant skeleton. no actual relation mind you. we helped him do all sorts of experiments with soul power and magic for the betterment of everyone. then, one day, the former royal family adopted a human child... that child was Kris. there was never any explanation as to where he came from or anything... he was just... there one day. everyone grew to know him and love him, but he wasn't like his adopted older brother, asriel. he kinda had a lot of expectations to live up to." Frisk listened patiently, not interrupting.

"everything was fine and normal.... right up until kris' first year of high school. well, you call it high school here, but where i was from there was just one school where all grades were taught. anyway, that's when things began to shift. from what i heard, afterwards, kris and susie both disappeared for the day when they went to get chalk for their teacher, alphys. the two were strangers, at first, but the days that followed that one the two were like the best of friends. something had happened... then, one day, during winter break... kris came up to me. and he asked me a question i didn't have an answer to." 

"What was that question?" 

"if there was ever a time i didn't feel like myself." 

"You don't think..." 

"i don't know kid, i really don't. it made a few things make sense though." 

"What kind of things?" 

"things resetting, events repeating... timelines stopping and starting. yeah, it happened there too."

"It did?! But why? You said monsters were on the surface right?"

"yeah, we were."

"So then, why did all that happen?" 

"i wondered that myself, but the answer made itself known after a while. or a likely answer anyway." 

"Which is what?" 

"that whatever force has been controlling you has moved on to the one i came from." 

"How is that possible? I mean, surely you had to have left your world before coming here... so then... how can you be here and then later there to come back here.... I think I lost myself." Sans chuckled and flipped to an empty page in the journal and grabbed a pencil. He then drew a line and two circles, one above the line and one underneath. Put an "f" in the lower one and a "s" in the upper one.

"this is the best way i can think of to explain it. time always moves forward for everyone, regardless of where you are or what point in time you're at. let's say that these two circles represent our worlds, this one is mine and the other is yours. dr gaster built that machine that allowed me, papyrus and him to come to your world; a place with a severe lack of the usual resources we were used to just finding at a store. the thing is this... whatever controlled you and might have controlled Kris, was outside all this. whatever it is... it's not being affected at all by time. it's outside of it, so time moves for us but not for them and possibly visa versa; like when you pause a movie and then come back to it. He made a square with a question mark inside it. 

"because it's outside of time itself... my theory is, from what i heard from kris, that this thing... whatever it is... it stopped here first. the first timeline and what not to ever be created was that point in time. by that time, i'd already been living here for a few years and doctor gaster was gone. leaving me to try and puzzle out the machine and see if i couldn't get it working again, but with that insane flower around anything i got done just got reset again and i began to lose hope of ever getting out of here... eventually it just didn't matter... and that's when you showed up."

"Why did you come here? Was it an accident?" 

"sorta." 

"What do you mean?" 

"i mean the three of us came here to escape the disaster of our own world. we're the last survivors." 


	6. Chapter 6

"So then... all those times that you said going back didn't matter... and getting to the surface..." 

"when i said that going back didn't matter i meant that because there wasn't anything to go back to, at least, that's my theory considering the events i left. i don't know for certain. kris was... acting off, but he hadn't done anything actually. it's just that, i got this really bad feeling about him the last time that i saw him. normally he was a quiet kid, but every once in a while he'd act completely the opposite. He'd be cheerful and talkative to nearly everyone like it was normal. i don't know if anyone else picked up on it, but it wasn't normal." 

"I see. What did happen then?" 

"i don't know. problem is, i don't remember. i've been through so many resets that i've lost track of everything. i barely even remember them by now and i know my brother has long since forgotten them, the friends we had there... family. we've been in this place so long that it might as well be as if we never knew them." 

"That's why the photo says 'don't forget' then?" 

"one of the reasons." 

"Sans, do you think that... _it_ will be back? The uh... hmm, I'm not sure what to call it." 

"considering how they seem to toy with us... we should just call 'em 'the player' but i hope not. i don't know kid. i've been through so many at this point that i would not be surprised if suddenly this all reset and we were back at square one. tibia honest... nothing really matters when things are just going to reset anyway." 

"I can see how you'd think that... I kind of wondered myself the same thing, but we can't simply give up! We've come this far, haven't we? I mean... I got mom out of the ruins and she's waiting for us... I've beaten everyone at their own game so many times... I just, I want this all to end and for everyone to get out of the Underground. I think even Flowey is sick of all this." Sans was silent on that account. Frisk wasn't sure if he knew the flower or not, but he wasn't giving any indication that he did. Frisk had a feeling that Sans did know, whether or not he remembered the name was another thing as he'd said... they'd been through so many resets, saving monsters, killing monsters... it all just sort of blurred together. Frisk was determined, however, to get it right this time and to finally save all the monsters. Every last one of them. After a moment of silence, they finally spoke up.

"So, what do you plan on doing?" 

"huh?" 

"Sans, I'm going to save everyone. One last time. For real. What will you do?" 

"i'm... not sure." Frisk wasn't surprised by that answer really. They knew he really didn't believe likely that this was all over, but then again, just to make sure things were finally able to stop resetting, Frisk had purposely stayed in The Ruins for as long as possible.

"Do you trust me?" He gave them an odd look, it wasn't exactly a typical question that someone asked another.

"why would you ask that?" 

"Because if you do, then have faith that I will do things right this time. That I will set everyone free." 

"you're askin' a lot of these bones you know that right?" 

"You once asked me why I didn't stay here, if what I had to do was that important. Do you remember that?" 

"yeah." How could he forget? He'd done this song and dance so many times he could recite it all in his sleep.

"I couldn't answer you then, but I _can_ answer you now. The truth is, yes. Freeing everyone is that important to me because you're my friends. My family."

"you ever going to answer the question?" 

"About what?" 

"why you came here." 

"Does it really matter?" 

"heh... guess not." He replied with a bit of a smile.

"alright kid. shall we do this one last time?" 

"One last time." They smiled as the two shook hands.


End file.
